Cribs

A few minutes before 8pm, at dusk on a classic spring weekend, four English lads take the stage at Rome's Monk Club, looming beneath a glittering logo with a faint glam flavour. The Cribs' show kicks off at full volume, riding the danceable groove of the new “Dark Luck”, the first live single from the new album “Selling A Vibe”, released at the start of 2026 and generally well received by critics, who called them “one of the most vital bands in the UK”.

The show by the band from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is a mix of old songs and new guitar workouts, from the Strokes-esque drive of “I'm A Realist” to the pop melody of the new single “Summer Seizures”, chasing the Californian sun that once lit up sonic pathways between the late Nineties and the early 2000s. Active for over twenty years, the band led by twins Gary and Ryan Jarman now seems to have moved past the departure of star guitarist Johnny Marr, who had certainly given them a boost in popularity on the global alternative-indie scene.

The set is all about fun and getting people dancing, from the catchy carefree energy of “Never The Same” to a revival of Marr's ringing riff on “We Share The Same Skies”. “Running Into You” oozes positivity with its friendly chorus, while the following “A Point Too Hard To Make” drifts by with a perhaps forgettable pop approach. One of the most successful moments of the set is the dark “The City Of Bugs”, which has a whiff of post-punk about it, driven by the martial beat of a wild Ross Jarman, who stands up to pound the skins.

The songs fly by quickly, with Ryan rallying all the band's longtime fans on “Direction”, before a leap forward in time to the new choral ballad “Looking For The Wrong Guy”. “Men's Needs” gets the crowd dancing with its Franz Ferdinand-style rhythm, followed by the grand finale of “Pink Snow”, which opens with a lazy, stretched-out electric guitar before exploding into a melodic indie-punk blast of thunderous impact. Ryan bids everyone farewell in Italian, confident he's delivered a good hour or so of fun, deliciously vintage music.

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